AUSTRALIA & OCEANIA
This region is dominated by water & includes the continent of Australia along with a collection
of islands extending from New Guinea & New Zealand across the Pacific to Hawaii
Area (mi2)
T/E Spec. (A)
T/E Spec. (P)
Australia
2,988,888
484
38
New Zealand Papua New Guinea
104,452
178,703
90
123
21
142
Oceania
3,306,741
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MAIN THEMES
Environmental Geography – nonnative plant & animal species, including snakes, rabbits & feral
pigs, are damaging the region’s unique biodiversity by preying upon local flora & fauna
Population & Settlement – contrary to images of the Outback, Australia is highly urban
Cultural Coherence & Diversity – recent immigration to Australia is creating a multicultural
country
Geopolitics – native peoples are filing claims to regain ownership
Economic & Social Development – most economic benefits are from international tourism &
thus is affected by other countries’ economic stagnation & recessions
Geographic Aspects of the region
1) Australia & New Zealand dominate the region
2) the Outback is as thinly settled as the Sahara Desert
3) the tropical Pacific dominates much of the rest of the region
4) three characteristics unite the region
a) its physical setting has isolated it from much of the world
b) it exhibits many cultural adaptations, assimilations & conflicts between
indigenous peoples & various Europeans
c) it has a youthful political geography with an ill-defined internal self-identity
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY
The region can be divided into:
1) Australia & New Zealand
2) Oceania
a) Melanesia (dark islands) – west; includes Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands,
Vanuatu, New Caledonia (Fr.) & Fiji
b) Polynesia (many islands) – east; includes French Polynesia (e.g. Tahiti), Hawaii,
Tonga, Tuvalu & Samoa. Also sometimes New Zealand because the native
Maoris share many of the same cultural & physical characteristics
c) Micronesia (small islands) – north; includes Nauru, the Marshall Islands, the Mariana
Islands (U.S.) & Guam (U.S.)
Australia consists of the Western Plateau which occupies > ½ the continent, the Interior
Lowlands, & the Eastern Highlands containing the Great Dividing Range. Finally, off the
northeastern coast, is the Great Barrier Reef
New Zealand is a result of undersea mt. building & consists of 2 major islands containing rolling
foothills & rugged mts (Note: bats are its only native mammals)
New Guinea is dominated by E-W mt. ranges separated by plateaus; the islands of Polynesia &
Micronesia originated from volcanic activity & consist of high islands (from recent volcanic
activity) & low islands (from eroding coral reefs)
CLIMATE
In Australia, zones of higher precipitation encircle the arid center
New Zealand’s North Island is subtropical while the South Island is cooler
Many of the Pacific islands receive abundant rainfall (esp. the high islands)
ENVIRONMENTAL GEOGRAPHY
1) Tropical deforestation is a major threat across the region
2) Global warming may be its greatest future environmental threat. Countries such as Tuvalu,
Kiribati & the Marshall Islands could disappear
3) Nuclear testing in the past has rendered some islands uninhabitable
4) Nonnative (i.e. exotic) plants & animals pose a major problem because they threaten
indigenous plants & animals. Examples: rabbits in Australia denuded vast areas of
vegetation; sheep & cattle have accelerated soil erosion & contributed to desertification;
rats & pigs have damaged native plants & birds on smaller islands; humans & rats caused
the extinction of New Zealand’s moa; the brown tree snake has virtually wiped out
Guam’s bird population
POPULATION & SETTLEMENT
Australia: very high urban population with 40% living in either Sydney (4.1 million) or
Melbourne (almost 4 million); the east & west are home to the majority of its population
& as one moves inland the population density declines rapidly
New Zealand: > 70% live on North Island: Auckland is the largest city (1.1 million)
PNG: only 15% is urban; Port Moresby, the capital, is the largest city (~254,000)
Oceania: largest city is Honolulu (almost one million)
Migration
Aborigines arrived in Australia ~60,000 y.a.
Eastern Melanesia & New Guinea were settled much later
New Caledonia, Fiji & Samoa ~3500 y.a.
New Zealand, Hawaii & Easter Island 800 A.D.
Dutch spotted New Zealand in 1642 & European immigration began
British colonized SE Australia in 1788 & by mid-19th C. was primarily English-speaking
Europeans arrived in New Zealand ~1800
Hawaii was a kingdom by the early 1800s
In 20th C., Australia’s & New Zealand’s population grew rapidly, however today birth rates are
low
Farmers are migrating from Australia’s interior to its cities
Chinese, Portuguese & Japanese came to Hawaii as laborers; Filipinos to Guam; South Asians to
Fiji; French to the French colonies
CULTURAL COHERENCE & DIVERSITY
For 1000s of years, Aborigines dominated Australia. They were hunter-gatherers so settlement
density was low; the total max population was < 300,000. Today they represent ~2% of the
population & 70% live in the cities. ~70% of Australia’s population are of British or Irish
descent; other major groups are Italians, Greeks & Germans. In 1973, immigration laws changed.
40% of the immigrants come from Asia, especially China, India, Malaysia & the Philippines
New Zealand is similar to Australia but the native Maoris are more culturally visible & make up
a larger percentage (15%) of the population, especially on the North Island. Another 5% are
Pacific Islanders & 5% are Asians.
Language
When Europeans arrived in Australia, 250 languages were spoken; today only 50 (spoken by
only 13% of the Aborigines)
Most languages in Oceania belong to the Austronesian family which covers the Pacific, insular
SE Asia & Madagascar. Highland people on New Guinea speak various Papuan languages with
> 1000 having been identified
Pidgin English has replaced many native languages
Religion
Hinduism came with the South Asians, Catholicism with the French, Protestantism with the
British. Mormons have been successful in parts of Polynesia.